Changing Customs and Promoting Civilized Practices in the Community—Jinan Second Funeral Home Advances Funeral Services into Neighborhoods

During the Qingming Festival, Jinan Second Funeral Home (formerly Jinan Lianhuashan Funeral Home), in accordance with the Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau’s unified guidelines for Qingming memorial services, adopted the theme “Promote New Customs and Foster a Civilized Atmosphere” and, through a strategy of “going out, inviting in, and working together,” helped advance the transformation of traditional practices under the context of routine epidemic prevention. By encouraging the public to rethink their attitudes toward funeral rites, the facility successively launched a series of “Five Ones” activities, including “sharing a collection of humanistic stories, organizing a community outreach campaign, holding a professional symposium, recruiting a new cohort of supervisors, and conducting a round of guided visits and experiential tours.”

Starting March 30, the Jinan Second Funeral Home, in collaboration with local civil affairs and medical institutions, has been working under the overarching theme of promoting positive social change. Organizing activities at the community level, it has delivered services and disseminated policies to residents. By setting up on-site information and consultation booths, displaying promotional displays, and distributing brochures on civilized mourning practices, the initiative has explained funeral‑related policies, helped community members understand relevant laws and regulations, and made it easier for the public to learn about green burial concepts, space‑saving and eco‑friendly burial options, and respectful commemorative rituals. Through these efforts, the campaign seeks to encourage simpler funeral arrangements and dignified, filial‑respectful funerals, further advancing the transformation of outdated customs in the new era and fostering a new ethos in the funeral sector.

In recent years, the Second Funeral Home of Jinan City has leveraged the Jinan Life Education Base as a platform to vigorously cultivate and practice the core socialist values, pinpointing the focal points of its public‑service initiatives. It has thus established the “Love·Lotus Speaks” life‑education brand and a sustainable public‑service framework that continues to expand. By launching six major charitable programs—“Love·In the Community,” “Love·In the Classroom,” “Love·At the Base,” “Love·By Your Side,” “Love·I Do!,” and “Love·Heart Relay”—the institution has seamlessly integrated volunteer service, death‑and‑life education, end‑of‑life care, and funeral services, creating a comprehensive, six‑in‑one service system. In particular, through initiatives such as “Sea Burial,” “Love·In the Community,” and “Love·In the Classroom,” the home has actively promoted efforts to reform outdated customs and practices, both in advocacy and in implementation. Meanwhile, within the facility, a “Path of Life” has been crafted, featuring twelve sculptural ensembles that blend life‑education with funeral culture, thereby establishing five key cultural hubs: funeral culture, life culture, red‑revolutionary culture, filial‑piety culture, and clean‑government culture. This “path‑as‑metaphor‑for‑life” approach vividly conveys the essence of life‑education. Through ongoing exploration and practical application, the “Love·Lotus Speaks” life‑education brand has begun to take shape. The overarching theme of “life, culture, publicity, and education” has taken root, sprouted, and blossomed at the funeral home, evolving into a down‑to‑earth, locally‑sourced model for modern funeral services.

Going forward, the Second Funeral Home will leverage its role as a life‑education base to advance the “Love in the Community” initiative, further enhancing service quality, innovating service offerings, implementing policies that benefit the public, promoting eco‑friendly burial practices, and enriching the substance of life‑education. In doing so, it aims to ensure that the spirit of civility takes root and that positive social norms and customs become firmly established.